Today I came across a blog post and I want to share it to all my readers. Read into it what you want but I read it to be mean and the straw that broke this camels back.
So without further ado, here it is. It is a blog post written by the owner of the Extraordinary Baby Shoppe in Ottawa. I have never read her blog before today but I took this opportunity to read a few other things she has posted and well... lets just say I won't become a follower. http://extraordinarybabyshoppe.blogspot.com/2011/03/hello-i-would-like-little-clarification.html
The reason I was angry at this specific post was her choice to refer to parents who diaper their babies in disposable diapers as "parents who don't consider the environmental effect of single-use diapers" and her comment about "If they are going to gripe and moan about the mess they create, they had better be ready to pay for it!". Now if you read this post you will see that she is referring to the City of Ottawa's decision to switch to Bi-weekly garbage collection which is a topic that itself means nothing to me (I don't live in the city) but what I consider a written attack on parents such as myself was enough for me to take my business elsewhere.
As I have said over and over again, I do not like being preached to about how I should parent or do anything for that matter. If someone chooses to cloth diaper then great for them. I did it for a while and it ended up not being for me. My decision to use the extremely popular disposables does not mean that I don't consider the environment. My husband and I conserve energy, recycle A LOT, grow our own veggies, don't idle our cars, and do everything we can for our friend mother nature. To be accused of not being environmentally friendly because I use regular diapers is simply mean. To be accused of anything for any safe and normal parenting decision I make is unnecessary.
Why this blog post bothered me is because it is just another one of those issues that divide parents between the type that do one thing and the type that do another. cloth diapers vs disposables, Breast milk vs formula, homemade food vs jarred, cribs vs co-sleeping, crying vs no crying. I have seen posts and articles supporting one side or the other and while I have seen people very pro-cloth diapers, this was the first time I have ever seen someone actually get nasty in their attempt to sway someone to the other side.
Isn't parenting difficult enough without having to worry about whether or not you are being judged for the perfectly healthy and safe, normal decisions you are making for your children. Now I have to admit I am guilty of doing this myself when it comes to certain things and I plan to work on this because more and more I see things shared through social networking that made me aware that I may be making other people feel the way I feel when someone pushes a parenting style on me or insults mine in a round-a-bout way.
I thought about now going into all the parenting decisions I have made that are debatable but I chose not to because it doesn't matter. The fact is they are my decisions and they are safe, healthy, normal, and guess what, popular. Done and Done!
So without further ado, here it is. It is a blog post written by the owner of the Extraordinary Baby Shoppe in Ottawa. I have never read her blog before today but I took this opportunity to read a few other things she has posted and well... lets just say I won't become a follower. http://extraordinarybabyshoppe.blogspot.com/2011/03/hello-i-would-like-little-clarification.html
The reason I was angry at this specific post was her choice to refer to parents who diaper their babies in disposable diapers as "parents who don't consider the environmental effect of single-use diapers" and her comment about "If they are going to gripe and moan about the mess they create, they had better be ready to pay for it!". Now if you read this post you will see that she is referring to the City of Ottawa's decision to switch to Bi-weekly garbage collection which is a topic that itself means nothing to me (I don't live in the city) but what I consider a written attack on parents such as myself was enough for me to take my business elsewhere.
As I have said over and over again, I do not like being preached to about how I should parent or do anything for that matter. If someone chooses to cloth diaper then great for them. I did it for a while and it ended up not being for me. My decision to use the extremely popular disposables does not mean that I don't consider the environment. My husband and I conserve energy, recycle A LOT, grow our own veggies, don't idle our cars, and do everything we can for our friend mother nature. To be accused of not being environmentally friendly because I use regular diapers is simply mean. To be accused of anything for any safe and normal parenting decision I make is unnecessary.
Why this blog post bothered me is because it is just another one of those issues that divide parents between the type that do one thing and the type that do another. cloth diapers vs disposables, Breast milk vs formula, homemade food vs jarred, cribs vs co-sleeping, crying vs no crying. I have seen posts and articles supporting one side or the other and while I have seen people very pro-cloth diapers, this was the first time I have ever seen someone actually get nasty in their attempt to sway someone to the other side.
Isn't parenting difficult enough without having to worry about whether or not you are being judged for the perfectly healthy and safe, normal decisions you are making for your children. Now I have to admit I am guilty of doing this myself when it comes to certain things and I plan to work on this because more and more I see things shared through social networking that made me aware that I may be making other people feel the way I feel when someone pushes a parenting style on me or insults mine in a round-a-bout way.
I thought about now going into all the parenting decisions I have made that are debatable but I chose not to because it doesn't matter. The fact is they are my decisions and they are safe, healthy, normal, and guess what, popular. Done and Done!
Wow. I would have blown a gasket reading it. :-( Just another way to add to Mother's Guilt. Nowadays, we are preached at from every corner what a GOOD mom does. How a GOOD mom should parent. What type of diaper a GOOD mom uses.
ReplyDelete(Oh the guilt i have felt about NOT using cloth diapers, or having to switch to formula because of not having enough milk - see. Even now I feel I have to defend myself for using formula...)
And it is all a load of bull.
Everyone should decide for themselves what works with their kids and their life.
I would have thought the owner of a children's shop would be more open minded and less critical.
Update: I just read the original post and I am so pissed. Just thinking of a comment to post there...